The Flumes near Barri Yalug
In the late 1800s, water was needed for the community in Stawell and Halls Gap and for the expanding gold mines at Pleasant Creek.
In 1869, the Stawell Shire Council engaged Government Surveyor C. Bagge to provide a report on the best way to get water. The scheme chosen was the Glenfyan scheme proposed by Borough Engineer John d’Alton in 1872. The plan was to blast a tunnel through Mt William range and supply this with water from a dam on Fyans Creek using Flumes (open aqueducts). The water would then pass through the tunnel to a pipeline (24km long) and onwards to a reservoir on Big Hill in Stawell.
Work commenced in February 1875. The Flumes ran for 10km` to the tunnel. The scheme took more than 6 years to complete finishing in July 1881.
Remnants of the Flumes can still be seen today, and they are protected as heritage relics within the National park.
The Dam at Lake Bellfield was not built until 1963 and completed in 1969. How different it must have looked and how impressive the Flumes were.
Information taken from History of Halls Gap here.
Catherine Carlyle